Since You've Been Gone
by stydiaisfabulous
Summary: Stiles is left all alone when Lydia leaves town after the death of Allison. Set after season 3.


It had been 3 months since Lydia had left. She told him that she needed space, that she needed to get out of this god-forsaken town. That everywhere she turned it reminded her of Allison, and that she couldn't deal with it anymore. Stiles understood, but it didn't hurt less when he saw the taxi speed away from him with his favourite strawberry blonde in the back seat.

He never expected for her to be gone so long. He thought 2 weeks max, just like a holiday, but by the month mark, he became worried. By the second month mark, he was running on less than 5 hours of sleep, tossing and turning about the horrible situations that Lydia could find herself in. Now, at the third month since she had skipped town, he was angry. He was upset that Lydia never called him, or that she hadn't come back yet. Although anger burnt in his veins like a fire, it didn't mean that his didn't heart sink every time he would look over to the desk where Lydia used to once occupy.

He had tried to move on with his life. He tried to get out of the house, after wallowing in his own pain for weeks. He tried to be there for Scott, who did just lose the love of his life, but it was move like Scott was there for Stiles. Not that Scott minded. Anything to keep him from crying. Stiles even tried to move on with his feelings for Lydia. He even agreed to go on a date with Malia, but cancelled last minute because it was all too much. Malia understood, and now they're friends, but it's not the same as when Lydia was here.

School was the hardest part. He couldn't message the beautiful genius to ask if she could help her study for their maths exam, even though he just spent most of that time staring at her. How she would flick her long strawberry blonde locks over her shoulder, or how she would stick her tongue out when she was concentrating, or how she would constantly roll her eyes at him when he wasn't paying attention, which was most of the time. He also hated how there once 8-person group had now become a 5 person group, with the addition of Malia.

What he hated most was that, even though she had hurt him, that she hadn't contacted him to tell him if she was okay, that she only gave him 10 minutes notice before flying away from this town, he was still in love her. He tried to refrain, but she was stuck in his brain. He wanted to be angry, he wanted to hate her for just picking up and leaving, but he could never hate her, because the truth is, he loved her. He wasn't angry at her, but he was so angry about what she did. It confused him; he didn't know how to feel, so eventually, he lost hope. He stopped hoping that every phone call was from Lydia, because he had been let down too many times. He stop running down to the door at the speed of lightning, just in case it was Lydia, because every time, he would be let down. He couldn't deal with the disappointment anymore, so he gave up.

One Thursday afternoon, he was home alone, studying for the upcoming biology exam, well he wasn't studying as such, more like looking the pages of textbook but not reading any of it. Suddenly he was pulled out of his mindless trance but a knock on the door. With a groan, Stiles rolled, literally, out of his bed landing on the floor with a big bang. He stayed like that for a few seconds until there was another knock.

"I'm coming!" He moaned in annoyance. He was eventually able to push himself off the floor and too make his way down stairs. He rustled his fingers through his hair and rolled his eyes when there was another knock.

"For god's sake, I'm coming. Don't get your knickers in a kn-" He was stopped by the presence that stood before him when he opened the door. The long strawberry blonde curls that he had grown to had been cut so that the only reach the beautiful girl's shoulders. The girl was wearing jeans, something that Stiles never imagined he would see her in. The flannel shirt that she wore hanged off her body and didn't define her curves that her other clothes normally did. When he finally worked up the courage to look at the eye, she smiled.

"Hi." That was all the words that came out her mouth. She had been gone for 3 months, and all she could say was hi. Stiles stood there, speechless for a few minute, until he decided to close the door, putting a barrier between the strawberry blonde and him.

He knew it was a pretty dick move, but he was angry. She hadn't contacted her in 3 months and all she says was hi. No apologies, no nice to see you, no hugs, just hi. He was pissed. SO pissed that he ignored that constant banging on his door and walked back up to his room. He closed the door, grabbed his headphones and played his music on full blast. He resisted the urge for the tears to fall and closed his eyes, focusing on the tunes that played.

After about 2 hours, or what felt like years, Stiles decided he was in the clear. He took his headphones off, opened his door and heard silence. Deep down, he was actually disappointed. He kind of hoped that she wouldn't give in, but then again, a door in the face is a pretty clear message. As Stiles made his way down stairs to scavenge for some food, which was most likely not going to be there because his dad had been gone for 5 days, and wouldn't be returning for another 4 days, and Stiles is a snacker. A major snacker. After a solid 20 minutes of opening pantry and fridge doors about 5 times, hoping that he would see something that he could have missed, he gave in and took a 20 dollar note from the stash of cash that his dad had left him while he was gone. Stiles grabbed his keys and a coat, he walked out his house. As he was making his way to is beloved Jeep, he heard someone behind him.

"Stiles please hear me out." He whipped around, seeing if he did indeed hear her or if he was going insane, again. Sure enough, her figure stood in front of him. Before she could say anything else, he turned back away and moved towards his Jeep. He was not in the mood.

"Stiles please wait!" He didn't know if he should give her a chance, because he wanted nothing but for her to envelope into his arms, but he felt that he had to angry with her. He stopped in his tracks, causing the strawberry blonde to run into him from behind. This caused he both of them to tumble to the ground, Stiles being Lydia's safety mat. She scrambled to get off him and kneels beside him.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry, I didn't expect you to stop and, holy crap I'm sorry," she exclaimed before cracking down into laughter. Stiles tried to hold his ground, but he couldn't help joining into her laughter. There just lay on the grass for a solid 5 minutes until she wiped away her tears and spoke.

"That is definitely not how I wanted to our conversation to begin." Suddenly a rush of anger exploded throughout Stiles. He got up in 3 seconds flat and stared at her right in the eye.

"Yeah, you just wanted to start it with hi." He scoffed while he rolled his eyes and began to make his way back inside his house. Suddenly he wasn't so hungry.

"What are you talking about?" A voice called from behind him. He stopped and turned around. The girl was just getting up and pushing the dirt off of her jeans. He let out an angered sigh.

"You leave for 3 months, never calling, never anything. You just disappeared-"

"Hey, I explained to while I had to leave! You said you understood! You called the cab!"

"That's because I thought you'd only be gone for a few weeks, not a few months! You didn't even bother to call me Lydia! No calls, nothing to let me know if you were okay! Do you know how many sleepless nights I had because I thought you could have been in danger?!" His voice was growing louder. He didn't even care about the stares coming from the neighbours; he kept his eyes locked on Lydia.

"Hey, it's not like you never tried to contact me!"

"Because you told me not too! For god's sake Lydia! You can't expect me to do everything for you, and you definitely can't expect to come back after 3 months and thinks that its okay that the first word to come out of our mouth is hi! Why the hell did you think that was okay?"

"Because I was nervous! I had a whole script prepared in my head, I was going to tell you that I was sorry, and that I know that I hurt you and its okay if you're pissed, which you obviously are by the way, and I would have explained myself and explained why these past 3 months have literally been the worst months of my life and that when I tried to figure out why the only explanation I could think of was that you weren't there! And then I saw your face and all of that flew out of my head and I couldn't form words and all I could say was hi. God!" She let out a big sigh. Stiles just stared straight at her, his face not giving her any hints to how he felt.

"Okay, I'm sorry. If you need some time to think, I totally understand. I'll go say hi to Scott and Kira and you can call me when you want to talk. And I understand if I never get a call, but I would love to talk." She looked at him, his face had still made no movements. "Stiles?" He still didn't move an inch. "Stiles, please say something." Her voice was quiet and soft, but it still made no difference to the position of his face. "STILES!" She yelled, and instantly regretting raising her voice. Stiles perked up and gulped.

"The past 3 months have been crap because I wasn't with you..." His face dropped back to the emotionless face that it was before. Lydia let out a little smile.

"Of course it was."

"Then why did you leave without me?" His question shocked, her jaw dropped a bit. She took a deep breath before she answered.

"Because I thought what I needed was time alone. When Allison died all this town reminded me of was her, and how she wasn't here anymore. And I felt guilty because maybe I could have done something about it, because when she was stabbed, I felt it too. It hurt me too. And that pain was still there, it still is, but I thought that if I just left this town for a little bit, by myself, it would help me. But I was wrong. I was so caught up in myself that I kind of forgot that you guys were hurting too, and when I realised, it was way too late to come back. So I was kind of in hid out for 2 months until I finally got the courage to come back, so now I'm here. And now I feel I should leave because you obviously hate me and if you hate me there is no point me being here!" She yelled towards the end, all of her emotions were getting the best of her. She looked to the ground, tears filling her eyes. She hated how selfish she was. She was so concentrated on not looking him in the eyes that when he grabbed her face and slowly moved it to face him, she was shocked. Tears filled her eyes even more.

"I'm sorry, I'm so so sorry." She whispered to him and he just smiled.

"I never hated you Lyds, I was just upset, hurt about you leaving. I could never hate you. You're Lydia Martin, and I love you." She looked at him with tears filling her eyes, threatening to spills. She smiled at him.

"I love you too." He smiled as he brought her face closer to his. He pressed his lips into hers. It wasn't urgent, it wasn't desperate, it was a reassurance. He knew that Lydia meant what she said, and she knew that what Stiles said was true. Lydia pulled away to see is face. His eyes were still squeezed shut and he was breathing heavily.

"It's just you and me, yeah?" Her question brought a big smile to his lips.

"Just you and me against the world." He smiled as her lips crashed into his. When they finally separated he put his arm around his shoulder, turning towards his blue Jeep that Lydia secret loved.

"Do you want some pizza?" Lydia laughed as she nodded her head eagerly. He kissed the top of her head. He know that they still had a long way to go, but for now, everything was perfect.


End file.
